O’Malley Announces Education Grants

BERLIN - SEPTEMBER 18: Fourth-grade students learn computer skills in the elementary school at the John F. Kennedy Schule dual-language public school on September 18, 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The German government will host a summit on education in Germany scheduled for mid-October in Dresden. Germany has consistantly fallen behind in recent years in comparison to other European countries in the Pisa education surveys, and Education Minister Annette Schavan is pushing for an 8 percent increase in the national educaiton budget for 2009. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)File photo of computers in a classroom. (credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gov. Martin O’Malley is announcing $5.5 million in grants to boost digital learning and to help high school students earn college credit.

The governor made the announcement on Wednesday in Annapolis with State Superintendent of Schools Lillian Lowery.

Six Maryland school systems are receiving a total of $3.5 million the Digital Learning Innovation Fund to help pay for initiatives like moving from textbooks to iPads and to use technology to better present content in a more personalized way to benefit students.

Another $2 million will come from the Early College Innovation Fund to increase access to postsecondary education. Six partnerships between local school systems and higher education institutions will help students seeking science, technology, engineering and math learning.